All eyes on Mandya as audio clip on money goes viral

The clip contains a conversation between former Congress MP G Madegowda and district in-charge minister C S Puttaraju of JD(S).
In Mandya constituency, it is expected to be tough fight between Sumalatha Ambareesh and Nikhil.
In Mandya constituency, it is expected to be tough fight between Sumalatha Ambareesh and Nikhil.

MANDYA: Mandya, which is seeing a tough fight between CM Kumaraswamy’s son Nikhil and independent candidate Sumalatha Ambareesh, saw a political storm on Sunday with an audio clip of a Congress leader and a minister going viral.

The clip contains a conversation between former Congress MP G Madegowda and district in-charge minister C S Puttaraju of JD(S). As per the clip,  Madegowda is heard seeking money for meeting the poll expenses. In the clip, he tells Puttaraju in Kannada that elections are nearing and that people are demanding money. And continues to say that he has spoken to Madhu (Madegowda’s son) in this regard. Madhu has been campaigning for Nikhil in Maddur.

Both Puttaraju and Madegowda have admitted to the conversation and wanted to know what was wrong with that. In the clip, Madegowda also reminds Puttaraju that “there are two groups in Maddur — one belonging to transport minister and Maddur MLA D C Thammanna and another belonging to us. Thammanna has already made monetary arrangements. People demand money from us too.”

Puttaraju who reiterates his promise to make arrangements throughout the conversation held in Kannada addresses Madegowda as ‘Appaji’.

As the clip went viral, Puttaraju said there was no dubious transaction in relation to the conversation. He said the Election Commission had set a ceiling of Rs 70 lakh towards the expenditure of a candidate and that Madegowda had sought money towards this.

Training his guns on rival BJP, Puttaraju said, “They have been tapping our phones to use it as per their convenience. With this, they want to help an independent candidate (Sumalatha Ambareesh).”

He also accused the I-T department of tapping phones. Madegowda too said, “Nobody including Prime Minister Narendra Modi can take part in electioneering without money. We need money to meet the expenses incurred towards food and other things. There is nothing wrong in demanding it.”Defending Madegowda, Kumaraswamy said in Udupi that seeking money for poll expenses was not against rules.

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